A deeply engaging examination of emotions and how they work, made fun and funny.
An imaginative kid learns about managing his emotions in Sonnenberg’s picture book.
Niko, who has light-colored skin and a mop of short black hair, has an imaginary new job as a bus attendant. After breakfast, Niko grabs his fake mustache from under his bed, next to a yellow toy school bus. When Niko gets to class, he sits beside his best friend, Nina, who has brown skin with her hair in two curly brown buns. Niko pretends he is a bus; his first passengers are Silly, Happy, and Impulsive. Happy and Silly board first; then Niko puts Impulsive in the driver’s seat, thinking, “Why not?” While Impulsive drives the bus, Niko notices his teacher’s pink dress and blurts out: “Ms. Moreno!! Your dress makes you look like the big, fat pink frosted donut with blue sprinkles that Dad bought me from the gas station this morning!” Niko’s next passengers are Guilt and Tummy Troubles. Rook’s clever illustrations unravel the metaphor of the bus passengers, each of whom is a uniquely colored little version of Niko. The pictures use luminous, highly pigmented colors for the characters and fun, comic-style accents against mostly grayscale and muted backgrounds. The exciting third-person narration brings Niko’s imagined world to life and drives the plot. At the end of the book, a couple of pointed questions for reflection invite the reader to look deeper into the emotions that arise throughout the story.
A deeply engaging examination of emotions and how they work, made fun and funny.Pub Date: June 18, 2024
ISBN: 9781645387657
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Orange Hat Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share.
In this latest in the series, Little Blue Truck, driven by pal Toad, is challenged to a countryside race by Racer Red, a sleek, low-slung vehicle.
Blue agrees, and the race is on. Although the two start off “hood to hood / and wheel to wheel,” they switch positions often as they speed their way over dusty country roads. Blue’s farm friends follow along to share in the excitement and shout out encouragement; adult readers will have fun voicing the various animal sounds. Short rhyming verses on each page and several strategic page turns add drama to the narrative, but soft, mottled effects in the otherwise colorful illustrations keep the competition from becoming too intense. Racer Red crosses the finish line first, but Blue is a gracious loser, happy to have worked hard. That’s a new concept for Racer Red, who’s laser-focused on victory but takes Blue’s words (“win or lose, it’s fun to try!”) to heart—a revelation that may lead to worthwhile storytime discussions. When Blue’s farm animal friends hop into the truck for the ride home, Racer Red tags along and learns a second lesson, one about speed. “Fast is fun, / and slow is too, / as long as you’re / with friends.”
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780063387843
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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